Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver edged out fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by just one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team opted for a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he spun at corner four soon after starting.
Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to get away with just a minor contact of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the quick descending corner approaching the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran ended the session in 19th place, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were well clear of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, 0.619 seconds off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
